Charles-Francois Daubigny - Landscape with Cattle by a Stream [1872]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - Landscape with Cattle by a Stream [1872], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting has in the past been titled Cattle Grazing, Sunset, and has been identified as a scene on the banks of the river Cure in the Morvan region of Burgundy, eastern France.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on wood, 35.6 x 66 cm]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - Alders [1872]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - Alders [1872], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This scene has been identified as a lake in Picardie, Northern France. In 1872 Daubigny travelled to Villerville, a coastal town near Trouville in Normandy, and would have painted this view during the trip. 

Daubigny (1817 - 1878) initially trained with his father, the classical landscape painter Edmond-François Daubigny (1789-1843). Soon after he was apprenticed to an engraver, and he was later to publish two albums of etchings in 1850 and 1851. During this period he sketched in the environs of Paris and the Forest of Fontainebleau, and in 1835 he travelled to Italy. In 1838 he made his debut at the Paris Salon, where he regularly exhibited landscapes for the rest of his life.

[National Gallery of Art, Washington - Oil on wood, 33 x 57.1 cm]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - River Scene with Ducks [1859]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - River Scene with Ducks [1859], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The river depicted here is almost certainly the Oise, near Auvers in France. The boat in the right middle distance is Le Botin, a small ferry which Daubigny converted into a studio-boat in 1857. He used it for travelling up and down rivers such as the Oise and painted many river scenes from it, working directly from nature.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on oak, 20.4 x 40 cm]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - The Garden Wall [1860-78]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - The Garden Wall [1860-78], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture, previously entitled Outskirts of a Village, probably depicts a scene from the artist's home town of Auvers-sur-Oise in France. Several other artists also worked in Auvers including Cezanne and Van Gogh who described the area in a letter to his brother as '... the real countryside, characteristic and picturesque'. Daubigny often worked directly from nature in the open air, and the style of his later landscapes was influenced by his friend and fellow landscape painter Corot.

[Oil on wood, 18.7 x 35.9 cm]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - St Paul's from the Surrey Side [1871-73]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - St Paul's from the Surrey Side [1871-73], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This view shows St Paul's Cathedral, in the distance, left of centre. The vantage point of the artist was on the south, or Surrey side of the river Thames, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge. Daubigny first visited London in 1866, returning in 1870-71 to escape the Franco-Prussian war. This painting, dated 1873, was either begun on the spot and finished in the studio, or was worked up from sketches made of the river during this visit.

[Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 81 cm]

Charles-Francois Daubigny - The Banks of the Loing

Charles-Francois Daubigny - The Banks of the Loing, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Daubigny, a famous French landscapist, belonged to the group of artists of the Barbizon School, who took their name from the village of Barbizon, near Paris, where they worked. Daubigny painted nearly all his works from life, with the exception of large canvases. At the end of the 1850s the artist built a boat-studio, on board of which he created many landscapes travelling along the rivers Loing, Oise and Seine.

Here we see a sunny summer day. The composition resembling a fragment of a large panorama is built up of alternating planes in a manner typical of Daubigny: a blue ribbon of the river, then a bank with its emerald-green grass, a little village in the distance, and the pale blue sky with floating clouds. The tiny bright red spots which indicate the cottage roofs reinforce the sense of spatial depth. Daubigny’s method of working in the open air, the light palette and the broad, free painterly style anticipated the work of the Impressionists.

[Oil on canvas, 25.5 x 41 cm]